Geography

A landlocked country in north-central Africa,
Chad is about 85% the size of Alaska. Its neighbors are Niger, Libya, the
Sudan, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, and Nigeria. Lake Chad,
from which the country gets its name, lies on the western border with
Niger and Nigeria. In the north is a desert that runs into the Sahara.

Government

Republic.

History

The area around Lake Chad has been inhabited
since at least 500
B.C.
In the 8th century
A.D.
, Berbers began migrating to the area.
Islam arrived in 1085, and by the 16th century a trio of rival kingdoms
flourished: the Kanem-Bornu, Baguirmi, and Ouaddaï. During the years
1883–1893, all three kingdoms came under the rule of the Sudanese
conqueror Rabih al-Zubayr. In 1900, Rabih was overthrown by the French,
who absorbed these kingdoms into the colony of French Equatorial Africa,
as part of Ubangi-Shari (now the Central African Republic), in 1913. In
1946, the territory, now known as Chad, became an autonomous republic
within the French Community. An independence movement led by the first
premier and president, François (later Ngarta) Tombalbaye, achieved
complete independence on Aug. 11, 1960. Tombalbaye was killed in the 1975
coup and succeeded by Gen. Félix Malloum, who faced a
Libyan-financed civil war throughout his tenure in office. In 1977, Libya
seized a strip of Chadian land and launched an invasion two years
later.

Nine rival groups meeting in Lagos, Nigeria, in
March 1979 agreed to form a provisional government headed by Goukouni
Oueddei, a former rebel leader. Fighting broke out again in Chad in March
1980, when Defense Minister Hissen Habré challenged Goukouni and
seized the capital. Libyan president Muammar al-Qaddafi, in Jan. 1981,
proposed a merger of Chad with Libya. The Libyan proposal was rejected and
Libyan troops withdrew from Chad that year, but in 1983 they poured back
into the northern part of the country in support of Goukouni. France, in
turn, sent troops into southern Chad in support of Habré.
Government troops then launched an offensive in early 1987 that drove the
Libyans out of most of the country.

In 1990, Idriss Déby, a former defense
minister and head of the Patriotic Salvation Movement, overthrew
Habré, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the legislature.
In 1994 a new constitution was drafted and an amnesty for political
prisoners was declared. Déby won multiparty elections in 1996 and
was reelected in 2001. His rule has been marked by repression and
corruption. Déby has faced about a half-dozen insurgencies since
taking office.